WEEE Forum 2009 Annual Report_Final

annual report
2009
Table of contents
01 The WEEE Forum on the move.............................................................................. 03
02 WEEELABEX........................................................................................................... 05
03 Other WEEE Forum initiatives................................................................................ 09
04 2009 balance . ........................................................................................................ 11
05 Looking ahead........................................................................................................ 13
06 WEEE Forum community in 2009.......................................................................... 15
07 Board and WEEELABEX Project Steering Group.................................................. 17
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01
The WEEE Forum on the move
2009 was a successful year for the WEEE Forum. First of all,
our 38 members as producer responsibility organisations
(PRO) collected 2 Mt (million tonnes) of WEEE. That means
2 Mt collected, transported, properly depolluted, recycled and
formally reported. This figure is up by 30% on 2008. The main
explanation is that all of our member organisations ­invested
millions of euro in campaigns aimed at raising awareness
among consumers and in building collection networks. It takes
huge, sustained efforts to educate consumers on what to do
with their end-of-life appliances. Furthermore, as our members share best practices, good results are obtained while,
at the same time, the development costs of new ­consumer
awareness campaigns steadily decrease. Nevertheless, seen
in the light of last year’s economic downturn, this performance is quite remarkable. The PROs of the WEEE Forum,
all of them run on behalf of a community of 17,000 producers
Europe-wide, showed stability and the consumers did not face
­increasing costs.
In a recent survey carried out early 2010, all member organisations expressed the view that the WEEE Forum’s principal
role is to provide a platform for exchange of best practices and
benchmarking. Membership is valued most in terms of the
informal discussions they have with peers and of what they
can learn from each other. The survey therefore confirmed
once again that our most important ambition is to be a competence centre, and not a lobby club. As legislation lays down
the rules for producer responsibility, we leave the lobby ground
to ­producers and their associations while assisting them in
­arguing their case with facts, figures and know-how.
Let us continue the good work and learn from each other.
Secondly, the WEEELABEX project took a swift start. This
­annual report documents the initiatives taken to prepare the
ground for standards and codes of practices in the areas of
collection, logistics, treatment and processing. By year-end,
we approved the first general normative requirements for all
WEEE categories, while discussions on specific requirements
continued. We are indeed satisfied to see that the European
Commission has approved of the progress made so far.
However, this is just the start. In 2010, we will commence
a discussion on the rules that will govern the verification of
­compliance with the standards. This will take many hours of
consultation, analysis and hard work. But we are confident that
at the WEEE Forum conference in Zurich, on 23-24 September
2010, we will be in a position to show major progress.
Andreas Röthlisberger
President
Pascal Leroy
Secretary General
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02
WEEELABEX
2.1. One year into the life of WEEELABEX
Year One – In 2009, the first year of the four year WEEE label of
excellence project, better known under the project proposal’s
acronym “WEEELABEX”, the key focus of the project was on
the development of a set of normative requirements related
to collection, logistics, treatment and processing of WEEE.
Once the requirements are deemed sufficiently advanced,
they will be lodged with CENELEC, the European committee
for ­electrotechnical standardisation, to be accepted as EN
­standards. The development of additional sets of requirements
in relation to management of particular types of WEEE, such
as CRT-containing WEEE, monitors and displays, and lamps
will continue in 2010.
The WEEE Forum also started exchanges of views with
­professionals on the architecture of a voluntary conformity
assessment architecture that is best adapted to the world of
WEEE management. It is envisioned that instead of subjecting
WEEE processors to similar audits for different clients, as was
recently the case in Germany with respect to treatment of endof-life cooling equipment, we will establish one uniform set of
guidelines. Processors and other WEEE chain operators will
be subject of audits ascertaining that their operations are in
compliance with the WEEELABEX set of standards.
Communication – A programme was launched to start communicating about the project. It is important that all parties
­involved in the business of WEEE collection and ­recovery,
­notably the producer responsibility organisations of the
WEEE Forum, producers, processors, civil society and ­public
­authorities, understand what the project aims to do and
how they can contribute to it. The project was presented
at ­international conferences to waste policy professionals,
­producers ­organisations and recyclers in Salzburg (January),
Toronto (February), Warsaw (April), Prague (May), Santiago de
Compostela (October), Madrid (November), Athens (November), Paris (December) and Ankara (December).
Technical Committee
2.2.Project management structure
and governance
Start of the project – Following the approval, in 2008, by the
LIFE committee of the WEEELABEX (WEEE label of excellence) project proposal, the WEEE Forum got into gear early
2009. Immediately prior to the official commencement of
the ­project, both the governance and the architecture of the
­project ­management were put in place to ensure a strong start
to the project. As part of the WEEE Forum General Assembly
of 20 November 2008 structures had been put in place for the
formation of the WEEELABEX Project Steering Group (PSG).
Core management team – At its meeting on 2 April, the Board
appointed Pascal Leroy, Secretary General, as ­project ­manager.
His role is to supervise the development of the project, to steer
and coordinate activities both among WEEE Forum bodies and
with external parties, to anticipate and mitigate issues, and to
assess risks. He is responsible for meeting the project objectives within the agreed time and quality constraints.
Due to the required level of (technical) expertise in WEEE management matters, external contractors play a very important
role in the management of this project. One senior consultant
in particular has so far provided major technical assistance in
WG WEEELABEX and the overall management of the project:
Ulrich Kasser of Zurich-based Büro für Umweltchemie.
Having joined the Brussels team in August 2009, Thérèse
­Shryane, an Irish national, was charged with the ­coordination
of the technical subprojects and working groups, notably
WG CRT, WG Flat Panel Displays, WG Plastics, WG Lamps and
WG Cooling.
WEEELABEX governing structure – At its meeting in November
2008, the Project Steering Group, chaired by Robert Hediger
(SENS), adopted the project plan, key focus of which was on
the development in 2009 of a set of standards. The Board also
WG WEEELABEX
Annual Report 2009 | 5
6 | Annual Report 2009
General Assembly
decided to involve stakeholders, assembled in the ­WEEELABEX
Steering Group (WSG), at an early stage of the project. Stakeholders had expressed a keen interest in being an integral part
of the project. Through several WSG and bilateral meetings,
a number of international conferences in 2008 and 2009 (see
infra) and the circulation of an electronic newsletter (“eye on
WEEE”), the WEEE Forum has gone at great length to involve
the stakeholders and to listen to their concerns.
The Technical Committee (TC) is the body of all (technical)
experts of the member organisations into which progress is
reported. The mission of TC is to contribute, on a technical
level, to WG WEEELABEX activities, while remaining outside
the project management structure.
In May 2009, the stakeholders were offered the opportunity
of delegating experts to any of the working groups, including
WG WEEELABEX. United Nations University and ERP accepted
the offer.
Even though not directly involved in the daily routine of
­project management as such, also the Board and the ­General
­Assembly (permanent representatives of the 39 member
­organisations) play a role in the project. The Board is entitled
to ­appoint and dismiss members of PSG and to approve the
budget ­proposed by the PSG. The General Assembly endorses
fundamental principles as proposed by the PSG and approves
project ­deliverables which are fundamental to the development of the project.
2.3. Standardisation
General requirements – Considerable progress was made as
regards the design and development of the set of normative
documents (commonly referred to as “standardisation”). A
template for a standard of “general requirements” was completed in February 2009, and WG WEEELABEX, the hub of the
project, developed a first version of the general requirements
(Part I) by mid-May. That version was subsequently subject to
discussions in the various bodies involved in the management
structure. Version 5.0 of the standard was approved by the
General Assembly on 21 November.
Splitting the standard – At that same meeting, the GA also
­decided to split the general requirements into a standard with
respect to treatment and logistics and a code of practice in
relation to collection points. The former will be subject to uniform rules and implementation guidelines, while the latter is
subject to WEEE Forum member organisations’ own rules due
to the fact that the regulatory framework governing collection
points differs considerably from country to country.
WF_RepTool and WF_RepLists – 20 member organisations
of the WEEE Forum already use or are planning to use WF_­
RepTool and WF_RepLists as reporting tools and background
lists of harmonised definitions. This is one tangible result that
will also facilitate discussions on the right reporting standard
phraseology. Renate Gabriel of Büro für Technischen Umweltschutz and Wilhelm Haghofer will continue elaborating
the framework for WEEE reporting in 2010.
Specific requirements – Different working groups also started
developing requirements with respect to collection, logistics
and treatment of CRT-containing WEEE as well as Flat Panel
Displays (FPD). Project leaders Jan Vrba (Asekol) and Richard
Toffolet (Eco-systèmes) will be steering developments until
completion in 2010.
Plastics project – The plastics project aims to examine samples of plastics from a number of WEEE categories for the
presence of additives, flames retardants and stabilisers (Cd,
Pb, Hg, PBDE, OctaBDE, DecaBDE, HBDE and TBBPA). This
project, coordinated by EMPA, a Swiss institute specialised in
materials testing and research, was launched at the Budapest
session on 10 September 2009 and sampling of materials was
completed by 28 February 2010. 59 samples from 16 organisations have been submitted for analysis.
CENELEC – On 25 August, an agreement was signed with
CENELEC, the European committee for ­electrotechnical
­standardisation, making the WEEE Forum a cooperation
­partner. The WEEE Forum will be entitled to contribute to
­CENELEC activities. The WEEELABEX normative documents
with general and specific requirements were lodged with
­CENELEC in April 2010.
2.4.European Commission approves
the inception report
Nine months into the project, the WEEE Forum lodged its
­inception report with the European Commission, the coordinator of LIFE funding. The purpose of the report is to ­demonstrate
that sufficient progress has been made and that no insurmountable (technical or financial) problems are encountered.
On 28 October 2009 the Commission formally approved the
­inception report. Next report is foreseen for October 2010.
Annual Report 2009 | 7
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03
Other WEEE Forum initiatives
3.1. Key figures
One of the tools that allows the WEEE Forum to profile itself
as a centre of competence for WEEE matters is “Key Figures”,
the result of a continuing project coordinated by Paul Brändli
(SWICO). The “Key Figures” tool compiles quantitative data,
notably amounts “put on the market”, quantities collected and
costs per type of equipment, per type of cost, and spanning
multiple years.
Total quantities
of WEEE collected
in country [2009]*
Total quantities
of WEEE collected
in country [2008]*
Austria
71,999
65,461
Belgium
101,660
88,640
58,123
44,625
83,674
77,629
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Cyprus
In 2009, more data on 2008 key figures was compiled than ever
before, both in overall terms and per category or theme. 34
members delivered data to the KF tool. For the key highlights,
see the “Did you know” section further in this report.
Denmark
France
371,340
283,962
For 2008 and 2009, we have compiled the figures of total
­quantities collected in each jurisdiction. (see table on the right)
Germany**
931,722
902,335
Greece
66,011
47,142
Estonia
2,566
Finland
Hungary
3.2. Drawing consumers’ attention
to collection of small WEEE items
Consumer awareness campaigns – The continuous improvement of the environmental performance of its member
­organisations is one of the WEEE Forum’s key missions. In that
context, the “improve collection” project was launched. The
project consists of different phases. In 2008, research started
zooming in on communication aspects (phase one). Charity
Teoh, also employed under contract with the United Nations
University, got into contact with the management teams of the
WEEE systems to understand the focus of their communication
policy, the tools they use to communicate about their ­activities,
the results achieved so far, and, whenever possible, the costeffectiveness of those activities. The project was ­presented to
the General Assembly on 3 April 2009.
Collection benchmarking – In the 3rd quarter, a report was
commissioned with Möbius, consultants in business process
and supply chain management, to benchmark the collection
­activities of the organisations of the WEEE Forum. Results were
presented at the WEEE Forum session on 15 April 2010 and will
be shown at the conference in Zurich on 24 September 2010.
44,776
Ireland
39,248
40,173
Italy
193,000
65,713
Latvia
2,478
5,985
Lithuania
7,282
11,807
Luxembourg
4,673
4,099
Netherlands
105,890
100,435
Norway***
151,620
148,029
Poland
108,793
56,426
Portugal
45,179
51,630
Romania
35,800
19,900
Slovakia
22,399
19,375
Slovenia
8,160
6,919
-
181,547
Sweden
151,411
151,116
Switzerland
121,098
135,162
UK
472,786
430,178
Malta
Spain
* The WEEE Forum is not in a position to provide official and consolidated figures
for all jurisdictions at the moment of going to press.
** Based on estimations.
*** N
orway, in contrast with most other countries, includes special professional WEEE,
such as transformers, electrical motors, and electrical installations, in its official
total market figures.
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04
2009 balance
BALANCE
ASSETS
2009
2008
10,506.35
40,424.85
INTANGIBLE ASSETS
5,463.56
33,385.77
TANGIBLE ASSETS
5,042.79
7,039.08
CURRENT ASSETS
284,701.33
331,469.32
6,585.60
4,736.91
FIXED ASSETS
AMOUNTS RECEIVABLE WITHIN ONE YEAR
DEPOSITS
100,000.00
CASH AT BANK AND IN HAND
177,031.50
325,484.71
1,084.23
1,247.70
295,207.68
371,894.17
2009
2008
CAPITAL AND RESERVES
146,916.57
85,404.10
ACCUMULATED PROFITS
146,916.57
85,404.10
CREDITORS
148,291.11
286,490.07
AMOUNTS PAYABLE WITHIN ONE YEAR
53,066.82
72,922.51
ACCRUED CHARGES AND DEFERRED INCOME
95,224.29
213,567.56
295,207.68
371,894.17
DEFERRED CHARGES AND ACCRUED INCOME
TOTAL ASSETS
LIABILITIES
TOTAL LIABILITIES
INCOME AND EXPENDITURES ACCOUNTS
OPERATING INCOME
622,079.83
639,921.44
OPERATING COSTS
561,820.03
593,116.42
60,259.80
46,805.02
2,099.07
3,954.95
846.63
1,676.11
61,512.24
49,083.86
OPERATING RESULTS
FINANCIAL INCOME
FINANCIAL CHARGES
SURPLUS FOR THE PERIOD
Annual Report 2009 | 11
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Looking ahead
The 3rd WEEE Forum conference in Zürich (Switzerland)
on 23-24 September 2010 will gather 250 business people,
WEEE management professionals, political influencers, and
­decision makers representing the various stakeholders from
the ­electronic waste management sector across Europe. This
year’s event will focus on “Visions for WEEE management and
policies 2020”.
On Thursday 23 September, in the morning, the European
Commission, captains of industry and a major non-governmental organisation will provide keynote speeches. In the
­afternoon, parallel sessions will give the floor to representatives of retail and municipalities, of producer registers and
clearing houses, of NGOs and of recycling industry. Panellists
representing those areas are invited to discuss critical issues.
The WEEE Forum conference is the bi-annual event to ­discuss
latest developments in the area of WEEE management and to
look ahead. Amongst other things, the conference in Zürich will
be an excellent opportunity to discuss the recast of ­Directive
2002/96/EC on WEEE, expected to be adopted by the end of this
year, and to understand upcoming responsibilities for the main
parties that have a stake in the policy dossier.
On Friday 24 September, the conference will not only zoom
in on WEEELABEX, a LIFE-funded project coordinated by the
WEEE Forum, but also on the WEEE collection issue and a
WEEE management and policy vision for 2020.
For more information, see www.weeeforumconference.org.
Annual Report 2009 | 13
All members of the WEEE Forum are non-profit organisations,
run on behalf of 17,000 producers of electrical and ­electronic
equipment. In 2009, the WEEE Forum was represented in
­Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy,
Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United ­Kingdom.
On 4 September, the WEEE Forum became an associate
member of StEP (Solving the Ewaste Problem), an initiative
launched by the United Nations University (UNU). In its turn,
UNU became a member of the WEEELABEX Stakeholders
Group (WSG) and also delegated an expert to WG ­WEEELABEX.
14 | Annual Report 2009
06
WEEE Forum community
in 2009
01. Austria
UFH
14. Norway
El retur
02. Belgium
Recupel
15. Poland
ElektroEko
03. Czech Republic
Asekol
Elektrowin
Retela
16. Portugal
Amb3E
20. Spain
EcoAsimelec
Ecofimática
Ecolec
Eco-RAEE’s
Ecotic
21. Sweden
El Kretsen
17. Romania
Eco Tic
RoRec
04. Denmark
El retur
22. Switzerland
SENS
SLRS
SWICO
18. Slovakia
Envidom
SEWA
05. Estonia
EES-Ringlus
06. Finland
Elker**
Serty
06
23. United Kingdom
Lumicom
Repic
19. Slovenia
Zeos
21
14
05
07. France
Ecologic
Eco-systèmes
08. Germany
Lightcycle
04
09. Greece
Appliances Recycling
11
23
10. Hungary
ElectroCoord
15
13
11. Ireland
WEEE Ireland
08
02
03
12. Italy
Ecodom
Ecoped*
EcoR’it
ReMedia
18
01
07
13. The Netherlands
ICT Milieu
NVMP
10
17
22
19
12
16
20
09
* Joined the organisation in the course of 2009
** Quit the organisation in the course of 2009.
Annual Report 2009 | 15
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07
Board and WEEELABEX
Project Steering Group
The Board of Directors, elected on 2 April 2008 for a four-years term, is composed of:
 Andreas Röthlisberger (SENS), Chairman
 Helmut Kolba (UFH), Vice Chairman
 Leo Donovan (WEEE Ireland), Treasurer
 Zoltán Tóth (ElectroCoord), Secretary (statutory)
 Christian Brabant (Eco-systèmes)
 Jan-Olof Eriksson (El Kretsen)
 Roman Tvrzník (Elektrowin)
Board of Directors
At its meeting on 12 February 2010 in Paris, each Director was made responsible for overseeing specific organisational and
­management duties.
The Board has delegated the daily management of the organisation to Pascal Leroy, Secretary General.
The WEEELABEX Project Steering Group, appointed by the Board on 7 November 2008,
is composed of:
 Robert Hediger (SENS), Chairman
 Christian Brabant (Eco-systèmes), Vice Chairman
 José-Ramón Carbajosa (Ecolec)
 Fernando Lamy da Fontoura (Amb3E)
 Peter Sabbe (Recupel)
 José Joaquín Santos (Eco-RAEE’s)
 Jan Vlak (NVMP)
 Jan Vrba (Asekol)
WEEELABEX Project Steering Group
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Did you know?
 With 2 Mt of WEEE collected, 2009 has been recorded as
a successful year for the WEEE Forum community. This
­figure is up by 30% on 2008 when approximately 1.5 Mt was
­collected. By far the most important explanation is that all
member organisations invested millions of euro in campaigns aimed at raising awareness among consumers and in
building collection networks. It takes huge, sustained ­efforts
to educate consumers on what to do with their end-of-life
appliances. As member organisations share best practices
among each other, good results are obtained while, at the
same time, the development costs of new consumer awareness campaigns steadily decrease.
 2 Mt of WEEE corresponds to approximately two-thirds of all
officially reported WEEE collection in Europe.
 The 2008 Key Figures, compiled last year, show that some
countries have experienced a stabilisation of market input,
while others experienced, after a steady increase in the
past couple of years, a decrease. In some cases this may be
­explained by a decrease in the number of affiliated producers, but in other cases it may reflect the decrease in overall
retail sales because of the negative economic situation in
2008. Overall, some mature organisations, both nationwide
organisations and those facing competition within the same
national market, still see an increase in market input data
compared to 2007.
F
or quite a few WEEE categories and subcategories costs
of compliance with Annex II of the Directive prevail over
­possible valuable material.
E
ight organisations reported negative treatment costs, i.e.
minus values, for large household appliances. The weighted
average of treatment costs is a profit of €40 per tonne.
E
ven if the picture of treatment improves cost-wise, the
­total operational costs for scrupulous systems who comply with standards and legislative requirements, such as
those spelled out in Annex II of Directive 2002/96/EC, ­remain
­positive. Only one member managed to turn the total
­management, i.e. including administration, of waste large
household appliances (excluding cooling appliances) into a
profitable business.
 In total, 17,000 producers of electrical and electronic equipment are affiliated to the WEEE systems that made up the
WEEE Forum in 2009.
O
n 1 July 2008, the WEEE Forum published for the first
time a comprehensive, public survey of “2007 Key Figures”,
­providing an analysis of recent trends and developments, and
detailed facts and figures about sales, quantities ­collected
and operational and non-operational costs in 2007.
 WEEE systems collected more than 65% of their WEEE
from municipal collection facilities. This demonstrates
that ­municipal collection facilities continue to be crucial in
­collection infrastructure.
 The two organisations that collected most in 2007,
­collected less per capita in 2008. This may be related to the
­contracting economic situation of the 2nd half of year 2008:
as ­consumers buy less electronics, less waste electronics is
being returned.
 Some organisations continued to fail to get hold of valuable
WEEE, while others saw a stabilisation in the trend.
 Members fully operational in 2008 spent a total of about
€382,000,000 on the collection, transport, treatment of
WEEE, and the administration of the organisation. Those
WEEE Forum members collected 1.3 Mt WEEE, which translates to a weighted average of the specific costs of 0.30 €/kg.
 Most organisations managed to lower their operational
costs in the past couple of years for nearly all WEEE categories. This mainly results from decreasing treatment costs.
The Board of the WEEE Forum wishes to thank
all the members for their trust and support,
and all the stakeholders and authorities with whom
the WEEE Forum has cooperated constructively.
Annual Report 2009 | 19
For more information on the WEEE Forum
and a profile of each system and contact information,
see www.weee-forum.org.
Drop a line with the Brussels office:
secretariat@weee-forum.org.
Call us on (+32) 2 706 87 01. Or pay us a visit:
Diamant conference and business centre,
Boulevard Auguste Reyerslaan 80,
1030 Brussels (Belgium).
With the contribution of the LIFE financial
instrument of the European Community.